Amphipods
are a gray
whale's favorite food. These tiny shrimp-like animals live
in sediment on the ocean floor. Whales also like small creatures
called cumaceans and isopods.
They eat little mysids, which hide
under rocks. Gray whales also gobble plankton,
small and microscopic animals floating in the sea. When
eating plankton, whales can be seen skim-feeding with their upper
jaws
above the surface of the ocean.

Gray whales
eat very little while on
migration. Still, they may find and eat schooling
squid, krill, crab larvae, herring
eggs,
ghost shrimp, and small bait fish such as capelin.

Photo:
Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary

This
jar of whale food shows how TINY it is!
An adult gray whale
in the summer feeding grounds eats approximately 2,400 pounds
of food a day. It swallows
at
least
67-77 tons of food during a four- to six-month feast on the Arctic
feeding grounds.